2020 Point In Time Homeless Count

On the evening of March 11, 2020, 1,523 individuals were found to be homeless in the capital region compared to 1,525 on March 15, 2018. Due to year over year changes in methodology, these two numbers do not necessarily suggest trends in the region.

 

https://www.crd.bc.c...sults-announced

 

The PiT count should be treated as an under-estimate. Some individuals value their privacy and prefer not to participate in the survey while others experiencing “hidden” homelessness are difficult to reach and, therefore, would not be included in this count.

 

The results of the 2020 PiT Count and survey will be used with ongoing shelter-use data, as well as information gathered through planning, for the creation of a Coordinated Assessment and Access service and Homelessness Management Information System which will improve service delivery, real-time reporting of homelessness levels and help achieve better outcomes for homeless individuals. An accompanying technical appendix was also developed by the CSPC and released with the key findings of the 2020 Greater Victoria Point-in-Time Homeless Study.

 

The requirements for physical distancing and isolation within the COVID-19 public health emergency measures contributed to a significant increase in the number of people sheltering out-of-doors in parks and along boulevards following the March 11 count and survey. A number of extreme weather shelters could not remain open beyond their planned March 31 closures and established shelters had to substantially reduce their nightly admissions due to the need to ensure individuals were provided with the ability to maintain an appropriate physical distance. As well, many people had to leave informal sheltering spaces (“couch surfing”) with family and friends due to the need for physical distancing. Correction and health institutions were forced to discharge people into homelessness during the emergency because there were no new sheltering options available in the community as the pandemic deepened.

 

The closure and significant curtailment of outreach services during the pandemic also contributed to the congregation of large numbers of unsheltered people in areas where limited services remained available (Pandora Avenue) and in public spaces where emergency services were provided (Topaz Park).

 

 

 

most of the above is garbage.  and should not be contained in the report.  the report is specifically called PIT to look at that night, not events prior to or after.

 

the PIT count was March 11th.  This news article is March 23:

 

https://www.vicnews....r-the-homeless/

 

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps announced to the public on March 23 that all involved parties are working to ensure that none of the parks transform into tent cities, as have been seen near the BC Court House and in Saanich in previous years, ensuring that structures will be installed and staff will be on site to ensure proper social distancing and cleanliness.

 

In addition, BC Housing has purchased the property at 938 Mason St. and will temporarily use the site as a triage centre and COVID-19 test site for Victoria’s homeless population.

 

Campers will be allowed in Topaz and Beacon Hill parks immediately, while the Royal Athletic Park is set to open as soon as possible, with the aim to be open by the end of the week.

 

from the count:

A number of extreme weather shelters could not remain open beyond their planned March 31 closures and established shelters had to substantially reduce their nightly admissions due to the need to ensure individuals were provided with the ability to maintain an appropriate physical distance.

 

 

what does that have to do with the march 11th count?  and secondly why have we never ever seen the numbers for the closures despite this line of crap fed to us continually?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 August 2020 - 02:33 AM.

to the numbers:

 

1523 individuals

 

12% have been here under one year - 183 brand new people

4% do not know of would not answer - 61 people

20% have been here 1 to 5 years - 305 people moved here in last 1-5 years

 

So that's (305+183) 488 newcomers in the past 5 years.

That were willing to be counted. Is there also a balancing with the number that have been housed. Between the two hotels that must be at least 80 to 100. So how is that captured?

90% have at least one health challenge, including substance use (67%), mental health (59%), and brain injury (29%).

 

so 10% - or 150 people - are just lazy, really unlucky, or have no talent or skills or work ethic or intelligence.  that's not too bad i guess.

 

[attachment=27720:screenshot-victoriahomelessness.ca-2020.08.13-10_41_22.png]

 

seems to me there might be an opportunity for at least one very enterprising homeless person to combine sex work with bottle returns.  or even a panhandling, bottle-returning sex worker.

 

i'm not making light of anything here (well i am for a moment) but i am kind of laughing at the only three examples of casual work they note here.

 

the 55 people with no income, what are thy doing?  they outnumber the full-time homeless workers 2 to 1.

 

hey look at that.  only 6 homeless people are making a living from "crime".  the rest that we hear about just do it for recreation i suppose.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 August 2020 - 06:48 AM.

When I was listening to CFAX this morning Adam Stirling was speaking with a representative from whichever group it is (forget the name) who conducts the point in time count. Did I hear correctly that Stephanie Hardman also works for this group? Who are they exactly?

i read in the report that this year for the first time they paid the (previous) volunteers a "living wage" honourarium.

 

everyone lapping up the gravy this year.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 August 2020 - 06:52 PM.

When I was listening to CFAX this morning Adam Stirling was speaking with a representative from whichever group it is (forget the name) who conducts the point in time count. Did I hear correctly that Stephanie Hardman also works for this group? Who are they exactly?

During the interview Stirling did indeed speak about the candidate for TV authoring the 2018 survey for the Community Social Planning Council, and being involved with the 2020 survey. That candidate would be Stefanie Hardman, and she was the CSPC’s research manager in 2018. I’m not sure if that is still her role.

The representative of the Community Social Planning Council also said the 2020 report was delivered on time to her knowledge, despite in March of this year Diana Gibson of the CSPC telling media preliminary results would be unveiled on March 27th, and the full report later in the spring. I’m not sure if it was Gibson who Stirling had on the air today.

#MostVulnerableCounter

 

Stirling just moments ago via Twitter:

“The preliminary report is expected to be released the first week of April.” But it wasn’t. Today I asked the executive director of @CSPC_Victoria why the delay happened? She denied there was a delay. But there was a delay. Why?

Stirling then says:

Something is not right here. Things do not add up with this report. The preliminary version never came out, and everybody’s acting strangely with respect to the final version. The @CSPC_Victoria #factcheck of my tweet contained a material error.

Two more tweets:

This supposed #FactCheck by @CSPC_Victoria implies me using the survey results of the 854 as being a reliable indicator of the larger population of *at least* 1523 an error. They argue the number is 101. It’s not. 12% of 1523 = 183. Why are they wrong?

They rely on substantial amounts of public money to produce these findings. This is very, very concerning... What else have they gotten wrong that nobody caught?

https://twitter.com/...5940757504?s=21

What really chaps me is that there would be more money & resources for people who really need it (seniors, disabled, mentally ill, single parents etc) if we weren’t allowing this ridiculousness to continue. Why Are those who are visibly poor being given the preferential treatment?

Stirling just moments ago via Twitter:

“The preliminary report is expected to be released the first week of April.” But it wasn’t. Today I asked the executive director of @CSPC_Victoria why the delay happened? She denied there was a delay. But there was a delay. Why?

Stirling then says:

Something is not right here. Things do not add up with this report. The preliminary version never came out, and everybody’s acting strangely with respect to the final version. The @CSPC_Victoria #factcheck of my tweet contained a material error.

Two more tweets:

This supposed #FactCheck by @CSPC_Victoria implies me using the survey results of the 854 as being a reliable indicator of the larger population of *at least* 1523 an error. They argue the number is 101. It’s not. 12% of 1523 = 183. Why are they wrong?

They rely on substantial amounts of public money to produce these findings. This is very, very concerning... What else have they gotten wrong that nobody caught?

https://twitter.com/...5940757504?s=21

The whole thing seems beyond shifty. The delays, the fact that they only actually speak to half the presumed number of homeless people... the way they unfailingly tell us its a myth that homeless people cone here from other places, which is contradicted by their own numbers... the involvement of a certain uvic prof and a TV candidate... would love to see Focus or the Capital do an in-depth look at all this...

Over 150 community members registered and attended a face-to-face two-hour training session to volunteer for the 2020 Greater Victoria PiT project. An additional 25 to 30 staff from homeless shelters and agencies participated in a 1.5 hour online training webinar to conduct surveys with clients.

 

Staff volunteers were recruited via the PiT Facilities Coordinator. All training sessions and materials were designed and administered by the Community Social Planning Council PiT Project Coordinator, using materials and guides from the Point-in-Time Count toolkit, and input and assistance from the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness.

 

The Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness recruited and trained approximately 30 people with lived/living experience of homelessness to support volunteers with conducting surveys.

 

 

https://www.crd.bc.c...vrsn=893b1dcc_2

 

so note all of the above were paid a "living wage" for this work (about $19.39/hr).  so i'm not sure but it seems we have at least 180 people working that night.  and being paid for the training too.

 

so 180 people counted up about 1500 people.  so about 6 people each.  

 

this year the pay for people that answered questions (the homeless) was increased from $5 to $10.

 

so if we say the "volunteers" were paid for 6 hours (2 hours of training and 4 hours on the night of the count) then we have 180x6x$19.39 = $20,941 for the volunteers plus about $15,000 for the participants (@ $10 each).

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 August 2020 - 04:43 AM.

they spend a lot of space explaining some of the numbers that people might find alarming.

 

on indigenous identity:

 

 

INDIGENOUS IDENTITY Widespread research indicates that colonial treaties, policies and practices designed to eradicate Indigenous cultures across Canada, including residential schools and the Sixties Scoop, have led to intergenerational trauma, causing extensive health and social implications for Indigenous people today. This impact of colonization has led to Indigenous peoples living off-reserve in urban centres to experience homelessness at a disproportionate rate and make up a substantial percentage of people experiencing homelessness in cities.

 

 

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL HISTORY 61.5% of Indigenous respondents report having a personal or close family history of attending a residential school. It is valuable to understand whether or not Indigenous people experiencing homelessness have personally attended residential school or had a parent or grandparent attend a residential school. Much of the literature shows the interrelated connections between the effects of colonization and residential schools with homelessness. Having an understanding of this incidence and the prevalence within the local homeless population can help inform the degree to which housing and support solutions might consider incorporating strategies to address trauma, including intergenerational and historical trauma and work towards the provision of culturally safe and appropriate spaces and services.

 

 

on substance abuse they have to chime in as follows:

 

REASONS FOR HOMELESSNESS Survey participants were asked what caused them to lose their housing most recently, and many indicated multiple responses; there are multiple and potentially interrelated factors that contribute to housing loss, including a variety of structural, systemic, and personal factors. A lack of income for housing (which could include a loss of benefits, income, or job) was the most common answer—chosen by more than one in four.

 

The top five reasons for housing loss include:

 

• Not enough income for housing (26.3%);

• Substance use issue (15.2%);

• Conflict with spouse or partner (13.5%)

• Landlord/tenant conflict (11.8%); and

• Conflict with other adult (e.g., family members, friends, other tenants/roommates) (8.4%).

 

While substance use is indicated as one of the top three reasons, it is important to remember that substance use prior to housing loss can be exacerbated by trauma, abuse, conflict and loss. Thus, substance use may be the immediate reason, but is preceded by other life circumstances and events that contribute to substance use often long before the event of housing loss

 

 

but on gender this is all they have to say:

 

GENDER Respondents to the 2020 PiT mostly identified as male: 63.1% male, 32.6% female, and 2.2% another gender identity.2 This is similar to the 2018 survey; both years over-represent men in experiencing homelessness in the Greater Victoria Region.

 

 

to me that's fairly important no?  why are most of the homeless men?

 

and apart from the indigenous question they ask no other questions about ethnicity - but they do ask about sexual orientation.  

 

us research back up my assertion in another thread that asians are almost never homeless.  would it not be worth studying why that is and how that can help the issue?

 

[attachment=27733:screenshot-endhomelessness.org-2020.08.14-08_55_18.png]

 

https://endhomelessn...ssness-numbers/

 

in the above graphs note the asian population (brown bar) compared to the asian homeless population.  so where it looks like blacks are maybe 3x over-represented, asians are at least several hundred - maybe even 500% - percent under-represented.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 August 2020 - 05:00 AM.

I'll note yet another contradiction in the narratives: one the one hand nobody could possibly know or understand these homeless individuals, which is why they're so feared and hated, but on the other hand many of these homeless individuals have casual, part-time, or full-time employment.

 

For those keeping score, we're told these homeless individuals are born-and-raised locals -- our friends, our family, our neighbours -- and we're told these homeless individuals are employed -- our employees, our co-workers -- but we're also told nobody could possibly know them or understand them (except for the agents of the service industries, who possess such deep understanding it verges on the mystical, but unfortunately it's not nearly deep enough to actually help the homeless individuals out of their situations).

 

4 years.

 

not much movement on the transitional housing front numbers.  are all these places like 844 johnson not transitional?  are they designed for stays longer than 3 years?

 

in fact we have a drop of 30 people/spaces since 2016.

 

oh this says the jail was not able to make a count this year.  well that's interesting that could have added ~ 80 more to the full count based on 2018 numbers from jail.

 

[attachment=27735:screenshot-victoriahomelessness.ca-2020.08.14-13_49_24.png] 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 August 2020 - 09:55 AM.

they spend a lot of space explaining some of the numbers that people might find alarming.

on indigenous identity:



on substance abuse they have to chime in as follows:


but on gender this is all they have to say:


to me that's fairly important no? why are most of the homeless men?

and apart from the indigenous question they ask no other questions about ethnicity - but they do ask about sexual orientation.

us research back up my assertion in another thread that asians are almost never homeless. would it not be worth studying why that is and how that can help the issue?

screenshot-endhomelessness.org-2020.08.14-08_55_18.png

https://endhomelessn...ssness-numbers/

in the above graphs note the asian population (brown bar) compared to the asian homeless population. so where it looks like blacks are maybe 3x over-represented, asians are at least several hundred - maybe even 500% - percent under-represented.

Because men and asians don’t fit into the UVic (and other universities) narratives of victim hood and it’s not about helping people do better it’s about reinforcing victim hood to the point where it’s almost « wallowing in it ». Teaching resiliency would be much better than encouraging the ever lasting grief but that’s not on the agenda in the « institutions of higher learning ».

My counter is not going to be up to the task... it stops at 1000. 

Edited by exc911ence, 14 August 2020 - 12:14 PM.

Let’s think about this - homeless population migration for the last year is 12%?! Hard to know for sure because of the constantly changing composition of the homeless population, and because this study was not free of bias. Yet we hear some people framing this as proof that influx is not a problem; would they react the same way if the overall population grew by by 12% per year in Victoria!? In both cases we simply don’t have the resources or the current services and infrastructure to support such dramatic growth.

The problem is that we’re looking at just one component of the overall system and trying to solve that in isolation. Without looking at the whole and focusing on a singular metric we will always end up with perverse results. The Coalition to Eliminate Homelessness. Housing first. Counting the number of people on the streets on a random night once a year. Yes, there is some good work looking at the route causes of homelessness and attempting to address those, but that shiny goal is driving poor strategic decisions.

How about a goal that focuses on improving the physical and mental health of all Victoria residents. It’s more inclusive, and will lead to early intervention that will reduce future homelessness before its too late. For those currently homeless it would mean success isn’t just achieved by warehousing people in buildings. It means caring about and improving their physical health (including addiction) and mental health, which will result in meaningful quality of life improvements for the homeless, their families and the greater community.

Or consider a goal that aims to reduce the overall percentage of homeless AND those relying on housing and social supports within a city to less than x percent. Otherwise sure, we could build 10,000 new supportive housing units in Victoria, but we haven’t improved anything and likely made Victoria an unsustainable city. We’ll soon realize that there is a real maximum percentage that a city can sustain - we do something about it, or it helps us say that no, we can’t have more homeless people decide to live within Victoria proper. If we’re past the max the Province needs to support/build housing in other cities or locations, and to deal with the court issue, there can be very basic emergency shelters to allow for overnight stays only.

A healthy society needs to consider crime rates; residents’ need to feel safe in their homes, not fear theft or damage to their hard earned personal property and have the ability to enjoy public spaces.

And while I’m politely ranting.. does the city even measure resident quality of life/ satisfaction? What about feeling physically safe in Victoria - is that not important? It’s ironic that some UVic intelligentsia, social activists and others will dismiss or minimize this, yet females (and males) often feel threatened or intimated downtown. Most times it’s males inflicting or threatening violence, yet if the perpetrators are homeless or mentally ill - well, you have to understand they’ve had a hard life too - so I guess that type of male on female violence is ok?!

My 20 year old daughter was walking downtown and had some guy randomly try to punch her in the head, she managed to duck in time. He kept ranting and walking up the street to an elementary school - she phoned 911 who said, ‘yah, what do you want us to do?’ She said she was trying to warn them in case he went toward the school or the students, she knew there would be no consequences or action against the man for the attempted attack on her. A few weeks later she quietly moved from the back of a bus where two drunk men were openly drinking and spilling beer. They said something rude to her, although she was trying to be discreet, and when she got off the bus at Douglas and Fort they threw their empty beer cans at her! Two months later we were on Douglas street and a very large angry man was coming towards us screaming and threatening to spread his body lice all over us. I told her to go into Fatburger and call 911 while I stayed outside to distract and draw him away from her. This all happened within a few months.. most people have similar stories. She’s bought herself a knife to protect herself, I told her that was a bad idea, but then again I’m not a small female. She loves downtown and what it has to offer, but the negatives are starting to outweigh the positives..

That's terrible! I'm a small older female, I rarely go downtown and when I go into a parkade I make sure my car door is locked. I scout around when leaving and returning to my car. I don't go to Beacon Hill by myself.

 

Went over to the little beach beside the Oak Bay Marina today. Sat on the beach and in the little park there (they actually have one of those "dangerous" green wooden swings still, like what used to be in Beacon Hill park before the city got rid of them. Those swings were so nice when I was ten) . Sure was nice and peaceful over there.